Reject Visions are about to take over the city! Artist Interview.

Hip hop is a beautiful thing, it brings people together. That is exactly why I’m in love with the genre. (HIP HOP WILL YOU MARRY ME?) And I love finding new artists with incredible talent. That is exactly what I found when I went to the Mad Child a few months back. Reject Visions are a shining star in the ever increasing hip hop scene in Toronto. And like any great hip hop acts I find, I want to know more about them. So I invited them to talk with me in a local coffee shop in the 6. As I sit down I notice Hannah (Yung Pupil) was writing some lyrics in a note pad. That was an indication to me how dedicated they are to hip hop and how much they love it, just like I do. I wanted to know if they always started as a group or if they did their own thing and then joined forces.

Did you guys start out as a group or were you both separate at first?

FN Scrubs: We started out as individuals. I’d been doing this since 2012 as a solo artist. It wasn’t until I did an EP with one of my friends from the states Red Rose Divine. I brought her in on a track (talking about Yung Pupil) called the “Last Breath” off our EP. My producer suggested we put together this group and it kinda just built from there. We started doing shows together initially we started as just FN Scrubs and Yung Pupil but we collectively made a name.

Yung Pupil: Yeah pretty much after the first show we made it official. I mean I had kind of had my own thing going on. I didn’t really have anything official like I defiantly had resources to go do shows. In fact when I was 17 the first kinda of connection I ever made was I opened up for Raekwon.

Me: Wow that’s sick!

Yung Pupil: Yeah but I didn’t have anything prepared it sounds pretty cool but I kinda went downhill from there. And we had like some mutual friends I’m like one of the only female MCs. So he needed somebody to go on a track and he’d been doing this for a while. He had this studio connection and then finally we kind of merged together. We got along really well and it thought it would be a good idea to do something a little different. A boy girl group.

Now of course I wanted to know how they came up with the name Reject Visions.

FN Scrubs: It just made sense to use the Reject visions name due to the reject aspect. And then also she’s Yung Pupil and I’m legally blind.

Yung Pupil: I remember we were thinking like man we wanted to do something like with the Rejects. And I’m pretty sure that already exists. It’s just a little bit basic. So I think that one day I just texted him “hey how about Reject Visions?”

Reject Visions have been hard at work playing shows and releasing an EP Ransom Notes. With this being one of their first projects together I wanted to know how long it took them to make it.

So the EP let’s talk about it. How long was that in the making?

FN Scrubs: I say about a year we didn’t actually record the first track until October.

Yung Pupil: We defiantly like jumped around. Like we were going to put almost every track we ever made. Like this is going to be on the EP.

Jamie (FN Scrubs) talked about who he had on their EP. Reject Visions are a local Toronto hip hop duo and they love to work with other hard working Toronto rappers.

FN Scrubs: We have an artist on our first track, called Spidey Jackson. He’s a really talented guy. I have my buddy from the states on there that I have known since I was in treatment, Red Rose Divine. It was the first time in my life where my mentor you know that guy who put me in the booth. And taught me everything I know and actually got on a song with me. He’s Gavin Slate he’s probably one of my biggest inspirations.

I asked them what they wanted to people to take away from their music. And Jamie (FN Scrubs) gave me an answer that was beautiful and better than anything I expected.

FN Scrubs: I guess what I personally want people to take out is. Like you don’t have to I guess be ashamed to be a reject in a way. You have to be yourself and be okay with that. I’m a blind kid I bring a cane on stage. Also it’s not easy for Hannah being a female MC. A lot of these things aren’t orthodox but you have to take what life gives you and make the best of it. And you should be proud of those things.

He’s right always be proud of who you are because everyone is beautiful and talented! With Jamie being legally blind and Hannah being a female rapper, I wanted to know what kind of criticism do they receive if any. The big thing that Jamie pointed out is,

FN Scrubs: People not listening to the music first and just judging our music off our appearances and not giving the tracks a try.

Hannah went on to say,

Yung Pupil: Yeah defiantly the whole idea of the boy girl group. It’s just not really a thing.

One of the last questions I asked them was who they grew up listening to and who inspired them to get into rapping.

FN Scrubs: Yelawolf is a big one. Gavin slate is a huge one he’s a local Toronto artist. He inspired me probably more than anyone. And of course Eminem and what he’s done for everything, being a huge inspiration too.

Kurt Cuffy // Photography

Yung Pupil: My 3 if we are jumping around genres here. Aesop Rock, old Pre 2011 Childish Gambino and my final third, AFI (laughing) you know the really like excruciatingly poetic stuff.

After talking to these two young inspiring rappers it really gave me a new love for hip hop. They are both wonderful people who have this insanely awesome talent to make good music. To check more of their music go like them on Facebook! They also have a song with Caddy Banks coming out soon! And don’t forget to take a listen to their EP Ransom Notes.